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Sencha Ext Js v/s Telerik Kendo UI

Very recently, I got a chance to get my hands on the trials of both, ExtJs 6 and Kendo UI. Before this, I had some working experience on ExtJs 3.4 (free version). So the basic model was somewhat clear to me. Must say, that it also helped me in quickly getting a grip on Kendo UI as well, as very much like ExtJs, it is also build on the MVVM model.

What I did was, that I build a simple drag & drop control using both the frameworks to get the working idea. It was a simple control comprising of two div/container where a user can drag/drop items back and forth from 1 container to another. Additionally, he can also re-arrange the order of items within the same container again with drag/drop only i.e., no buttons were involved.

At the end of the day, I won’t say whether a given framework emerged superior than the other, but while working upon them, some very clear and contrasting features caught my attention. Following is a comparison table highlighting the most contrasting features of the two, that were obvious to me.

Si No.

ExtJs 6

Kendo UI

Comments

1

IE Support

Classic: IE8+ (Strict DOCTYPE) Modern: IE11+

Desktop: IE7+Mobile: IE10+

Applications in ExtJS 6 can be developed either in Classic or Modern mode. Classic is desktop version which does not support features like touch and swipe. Modern supports touch functionality.

Kendo UI has only 1 mode which supports both desktop and mobile features, so no choice of types here. Some of its features like exporting to excel and pdf are supported from IE 8 onward.

Currently, there are users for IE7, IE8, IE9, etc. Personally I believe, that with the advent of Windows 10, Microsoft will be able to bring all its user base to the same browser platform, Edge. If that is achieved, we may not need a separate section for IE support anymore as Edge is as powerful as any other modern browser, maybe slightly more!

2

Rich Set of Controls

Yes

Yes

ExtJS has probably more widgets than Kendo-UI.

3

FootPrint

Large

Small

This is based on the current drag/drop control I used for this comparison. ExtJs adds a lot more HTML components for the same TreeView as compared to Kendo-UI. While Kendo-UI uses the HTML

inside a parent table, ExtJS renders a number of Divs inside a parent table where each node is again bundled inside a separate table element, This arrangement may not have much impact on smaller applications but on a single web page with lots of UI widgets, Kendo-UI got to be faster.

4

Drag and Drop of multiple items

Yes

No

Telerik has confirmed that there widget supports drag and drop of only 1 item at a time.

5

Code styling & maintenance

Pure MVVM [Model View ViewModel] framework. It means once its concept is clear maintenance and development is uniform, enhancing the code quality. No HTML designing is required.

Kendo-UI widgets are implemented by MVVM framework but functionalities have to be added via jQuery. You have to design your HTML as well. If not developed properly, maintenance can become an issue in the future.

Basically, depends on the developers. If developed properly, jQuery and HTML is indeed the core of many small to large scale web developments and also offers a very strong and powerful web community.

6

jQuery support

Yes, but need to chiefly work within the walls of ExtJs which is mostly enough.

Largely depends upon jQuery. One of the features they have implemented to make it light weight

No framework is 100% perfect. Having a proper jQuery support signifies that in future any 3rd party component can also be integrated which may or may not have been built on MVVM model.

7

Pivot-Grid

Yes.

Yes

For ExtJs, Pivot-Grid is supported from its latest version only, which is, ExtJs6.

8

Customizing default themes

Offers 6 different themes by default. Customizing these existing themes can be cumbersome.

Offers 17 themes by default out of which 12 can be easily modified online. Again, not 100% design can be changed, but most of it is easily configurable using there online theme generator and applying our own custom css. http://demos.telerik.com/kendo-ui/themebuilder/

Sencha claims that themes can also be modified using there another paid product, Architect 3.

9

Responsive design

Some level of responsiveness can be achieved.

Claims to be completely responsive as it is built leveraging bootstrap css. Online demos are responsive.

As of now, achieving complete responsiveness is not possible with ExtJs because of its architectural limitations. They still have two separate development models for mobile and desktop.

10

Learning Curve

Steep. It will certainly take a while for a new developer to get accustomed to it.

By far and large, for a web developer, not much of an extra effort is needed to learn it. Need clear understanding of MVVM though.

Once the fundamentals are clear, developing in ExtJs shouldn’t be an issue.